Space: The final frontier for coded data?

Dr Alexander Ling with the quantum entanglement device he and his team developed. He is in talks with the National University of Singapore and European space conglomerate QB50 to piggyback their space missions and launch his experiment. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

By Kash Cheong

A space experiment slightly larger than a sandwich tucked into a nanosatellite could change the way encrypted data is sent around the globe.

This is what Singaporean physicist Alexander Ling is hoping to achieve with the miniature experiment he developed with his team.

"This is the first step to extending quantum cryptography over global distances," said the 37-year-old from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) here. "It is a long way down the road, but we could even use it to protect electronic transactions for the man in the street."

Quantum cryptography, or the transmission of secrets using light particles, has been used by several European banks.